Chapter 12 Maggie
MAGGIE
Hours later, with the kids at my mom’s and the Snows taking care of their own dinner, I was still mortified as I walked into The Reverse Cowgirl.
My mortification had to take a back seat as I watched my servers rush across the floor.
Dinner was not a big deal at the bar, but girls’ nights were and it seemed we were hosting quite a few.
I pushed thoughts of Theo and his declaration out of my head as I picked empties up along my way to the back of the bar. I wasn’t sure what was happening. But I needed to talk to Loren about staffing appropriately.
“Loren.” I walked over to the bar’s night time manager. “I’ll be here all night, we can go over a few things when there’s a lull.”
I knew we would have some time between the time the after-work crowd left and the after-dinner crowd came in.
She nodded at me. “Sure, we’ll be quiet in about an hour. Paul called in sick, so I’m covering for him until Lance can come in. He was on his way home from another job.”
Aah, that explained the staffing issue.
“Sure.” I looked around and the place was busy. Not unusual for a Thursday, but not ideal when we were a man down. “Do you need anything from me?”
She pointed at the group of women. “They want a bottle of the Sterling Estate Chardonnay and the Taylor’s Creek Whiskey is nearly done.”
“They still selling well?” The Sterling winery was new, at least for us. I took a risk on the Texas brand a while back and it turned out to be my best seller.
She nodded and I did as she asked. Between going over the books and posting the schedules for the next two weeks. Once the bar was a little quieter and Lance showed up, Loren and I were able to talk. I warned her about Fred, and that he and his brothers were not welcome in the bar.
“Fred hasn’t been in here, but both brothers were in earlier in the week.” She leaned back in her chair. “Went on as usual about how you stole this place from their family.”
I just nodded, my jaw tight. The eyeroll it needed was not worth the effort. Let them spread their poison. I couldn’t control it and I didn’t care either. The bar was mine. Fred agreed to it in writing and the divorce made it legal.
Just as the place started getting busy again, Theo walked in, a smile on his face as walked over to the table where Loren and I were talking. He held a bag from Bowler’s, the local diner. Loren and I ended our meeting, and I gathered my papers to work in the back office.
“Hey.” Theo stood at the table, and took the pile away from me. “Are you going to work in your office?”
Nodding, I stood slowly, still unable to say anything to him. “Uhm…”
He stifled a grin, and I wanted to slap that smug look off his face. “You have something to say?”
I shook my head and started toward my office. I used the short distance to gather myself. I breathed deeply and by the time Theo closed the office door behind him, my confidence had returned. “Theo.”
As I looked around and realized we were alone. In a very small space. He placed papers on the desk and handed me the bag of food. “I brought you dinner.”
I blinked fast. I mean my sisters would bring me food if they knew I was working late.
Even Tiffany did it when necessary. Both Holden and his brother brought me food from time to time since their dad owned the best steak restaurant in southern California.
Fred certainly never made sure I was fed.
Well, except for the few dates we went on in the beginning of our relationship.
But I was not going to act surprised. The man was trying to woo me. He needed to earn my awe.
“Thank you,” I said instead. Before I could say anymore, a crash came from the bar. Without saying a word, I sped out of the office, Theo not far behind me. “What happened?”
Loren pointed to one of the waiters standing over a big red mess on the concrete floor. “The crate cracked as we picked it up. It's the screw top selection from Sterling. That’s our entire supply for the month.”
A crate of our bestselling wine was now a giant, sticky, pink mess. I counted to five. Counting to ten would take too long, and I was likely to start crying. Not a good look for the boss.
Loren started ordering the staff around so the cleaning could get under way.
“What can I do to help?” Theo was right at my side.
I held up a finger and pulled my phone from my pocket.
With Loren sorting the cleaning and rearranging staff, I needed to call Scott Waite, Holden’s dad.
He answered on the first ring. “Mr Waite, I need half a crate of the Sterling selection, one bottle of each if you have. I’ll have a new shipment in the morning and replace yours. I’ll pay double if that helps.”
Scott didn’t hesitate. “No problem, but I’m really busy, do you have someone to pick it up?”
“Theo will be there in a few minutes.” Before I could turn to ask him, Theo was out the door, pulling his keys from his pocket.
I stared at the door he disappeared through. No questions, no debate. He just did what I asked, like he was used to taking instructions. A strange unfamiliar warmth spread through my chest, and it had nothing to do with the spilled wine.
That was not how I wanted the night to go.
Still, less than an hour later, we had the mess cleaned up, secured some stock to tide us over and placed an emergency order with priority shipping.
Could we survive without those wines? Probably.
But they’re a top seller and the lack of stock would definitely impact the bottom line.
Not a single customer was left waiting. The one person who had ordered from one of the broken bottles was taken care of.
Her drink was on the house and I offered her and her friends a single round of drinks as well.
I was still bussing tables when Theo stood in front of me and raised a brow.
“What?” There was no need for him to look at me like I was doing something wrong.
“Have you eaten?” He looked around the bar. “Crisis averted, right? You can carry on with what you were doing before all this happened?”
“Thank you for getting the wine.” I loved that he was willing to help, and also that he never took over. He ran a billion dollar empire and I ran a bar. Still, he had no problem taking instructions from me.
“You’re welcome. It was the least I could do. You had everything handled, really.”
I let out a long exhale and handed the tub for the empties over to one of the servers. “You’re right?” I frowned at him. “Why were you here? Just to bring me dinner?”
“Not quite.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “I just think that some requests work better when you’re not operating on an empty stomach.”
“Request?”
“Let’s go to your office.” He wasn’t exactly nervous, but his shoulders were definitely tense.
I led the way to the back room. Once again, he raised a brow and it didn’t take a genius to know what he wanted. I moved around the desk and sat in my chair. I opened the bag from Bowler’s and found my favorite cheese burger. Even though it was cold, it was delicious.
I let out a low groan as I took the first bite. I looked up and found Theo looking at me with a hunger I had never noticed before. “Do you want half?”
He shook his head. “That’s not what I want to eat.”
His words were low and deep and had me squirming in my seat. “So, what were you going to ask me?”
“Would you like to go on a date with me tomorrow?”
My shoulders sagged. I hated that I needed to decline. “I cannot ask my parents to watch the kids two nights in a row.”
“Zoe offered to babysit.” He moved his head from side to side. “Actually, offered is a bit of a stretch. I’m paying her to babysit.”
I gave it some thought. Zoe was sixteen, and responsible. She also loved the kids, which was a big plus in my book. Still, I didn’t want to be too far away in case she needed us. “Not more than fifteen minutes away from my parents’ house.”
Theo frowned at me. “This is Marina De Ferrier, love. Nothing is more than fifteen minutes away.”
“True. Dress code?” There was only one fancy restaurant in town.
“Casual. And layers. We’ll be outdoors.”
So, not fancy. Okay. “Then yes. I would love to go out with you.” I took another bite.
“Good that’s part one out of the way.”
I frowned and swallowed the food in my mouth. “Part one? There are multiple parts?”
“Maggie, you said you wanted to be wooed. I want all of you, so I need to woo all parts of you.”
“Okay. What else is there?”
“Tell me why you’re not expanding the bar or trying to get it back to what it was before.”
By the time we had started coming to The Reverse Cowgirl, the bar had started to fall into disarray. If I look at the older photos, I can see it was a great place with booths and larger tables.
I think I’ve done a good job building it up since Fred had bought it. But there was only so much I could do without a cash infusion. A few years back, my credit score hadn’t supported a loan, and not much has changed since then.
I narrowed my eyes. “The bar sustains itself. But it cannot grow without a —” I widened my eyes and lifted my hands in a stop motion as I realized where the conversation was headed. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Maggie, listen to me.” He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his thighs. “This is not a hand out. I can assure you, billionaires don’t stay that way by giving extravagant gifts.”
“Then what are you talking about?”
He sat up and got a look in his eyes I had never seen before. “I have two options for you.”
His voice took on a deep tone that was different to the one that was filled with lust and hunger.
“I’m listening.” I raised my brow, not even trying to hide the challenge in my voice.
He raised a brow to the attitude in my voice.
“You sell me a share and I can put up the money for the renovations. Or, if you don’t want to share.
I can loan you the money. We’ll structure it with interest. Either way I will need a proposal on what you intend doing and the costs involved as well as projections on the annual income after the renovations. ”
I just stared at him, my burger forgotten.
He was talking about projections, interest, and shares.
A language I thought I had long forgotten.
He wasn’t offering to solve my problem, he was offering me the tools to do it myself.
Because he believed I could. He remembered the empire I wanted to build and offered to help me get back on that path.
It had been a long time since anyone had taken my ambition seriously.
That was … a lot. “Do I have to decide now?
“Maggie, I wouldn’t be doing business with you, if you were inclined to make snap decisions. Take some time to think about it.”
I heard all his words, but I also heard his confidence.
That deep rumble that he probably used in the boardroom to get his minions to do his bidding.
It occurred to me that I was talking to Theo the CEO.
Dammit that was hot. Merging that with the half naked man I saw in his bathroom was downright potent.
“I will.”
He smiled and I could see his shoulders relax a little. “Good then, I can get to the last part?”
“There’s more?”
He opened his wallet and pulled out a black card. “There’s a charity gala next week. Ryder’s also purchased tickets, so you’ll probably be able to drag Shiloh along.” He pushed the card toward me. “It's also the one event Tiffany will attend. There’s no limit. Spoil yourself.”